Sturge: CCC workers could be given stipend

Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge on Tuesday at a public consultation on stand your ground legislation at the Sangre Grande civic centre. PHOTO BY FAITH AYOUNG - Faith Ayoung

Defence Minister Wayne Sturge said a decision will be made by July 31 as to whether the 72 contract workers at the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC), whose contracts end on that day, will be retained on the programme with a stipend or will be let go.

Speaking to Newsday via phone on July 30, Sturge said the issue was considered and is still being discussed.

“By tomorrow, you’ll know what the final decision is, whether to keep them on a stipend or if it might be cheaper to hire security to secure the assets of the programme or use our existing resources to secure the assets, but we can’t justify spending that amount of money if there is no cohort to train. There are no students and we’re spending $2 million a month.”

Reports are 72 of the 114 CCC employees had been informed their contracts would end on July 31, after having been given a one-month extension on their contracts. Sturge said the workers would be re-hired in January if they were available.

“We expect them to seek their own interests, so if they find alternative employment in the interim and they are not available, that frees up opportunities for others to get employment with CCC.”

Asked whether it would not be in the best interests of the programme to retain the present staff, who would have experience teaching their areas of expertise as well as having done training to improve themselves, Sturge said,

“If they died or migrated, would we throw our hands up in the air? We would hire more people and train them.”

Speaking at the ... he reiterated that the government was not closing the programme, but there were no students at the moment. He said the next intake of students will be in January and, at that point, the spending of taxpayers money would be justified.

Former youth development and national service minister Foster Cummings, in a WhatsApp message in response to questions from Newsday, said the 2025 intake, which had been carded for January 2025, had been delayed to allow for an investigation into the operations of the youth programmes, approved by the Cabinet in February.

“The Cabinet agreed to establish two separate committees under the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service to undertake an investigation aimed at optimising the operating policies and procedures, as well as the management of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) programme, the Military-Led Academic Training (MiLAT) programme and the Military-Led Youth Programmes of Apprenticeship and Reorientation Training (MYPART).”

He said the employment arrangement of CCC staff was not disrupted during the investigation period.

“The first committee report was submitted in late March 2025, and preparations were being made for the intake of students utilizing the recommendations contained therein.”

Cummings said there is usually one annual intake to the CCC, which is a nine-month non-residential programme which caters annually for the training of 1,000 young people between 16-25.

Speaking at a media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader, Charles Street, Port of Spain on July 29, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles said the laying off of the CCC employees seemed to be part of the government's policy.

“We go back to an issue of priority. This is, to me, a continuation of CEPEP, Reforestation, URP, so in other words, it’s a policy of the government.

“I mean, we all understand the Civilian Conversation Corps is a very important intervention for young people and it is really extremely unfortunate that the government has taken that decision and you don’t see a clear position. Those are things you should come out clearly and say this is an intervention. If you want to put in place and you want to take in a new group of people, you put in your new policy, that’s fine, but the truth is that we all understand that all of these programmes under the Ministry of Youth are extremely important.”